Facebook Teaming Up with Lyft to Increase Outreach in Crises
Facebook is teaming up with organizations such as Lyft to make it easier to help people during a crisis. Now these companies can provide critical information, and services directly on the Community Help page. Lyft's Head of Social Impact Mike Masserman and Facebook's Social Good Product Lead Asha Sharma explain how this new integration works.
"We've seen the communities come together and use in a lot of different types of crises over the last year," said Sharma. "Now that we have organizations involved there's an opportunity to actually help people in a crisis get the services they need."
"In the wake of the hurricanes in Florida and Texas we formalized this program to provide people with free reduced rides to hospitals and shelters," said Masserman. "We think this is a great evolution of that program to make sure that more people and communities during times of crisis know these relief rides are available to them."
Marc Blinder, Co-Founder and CEO of Aikon, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he discusses how his company is helping businesses use blockchain applications without needing to learn the intricacies of the new technology.
Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have introduced a new bill to afford greater protection to minors on social media. The genesis of the Kids Online Safety Act came from a Facebook whistleblower case exposing the harm apps can have on the mental health of young girls.
Ride share competitors Uber and Lyft both posted their fourth quarter earnings days apart from each other. Both companies have been trying to get back on their feet after taking some pandemic-related hits, but the Omicron variant had other ideas as the year came to a close, with each company taking a hit in ridership in December. Lance Ippolito, head trader at The Future of Wealth explains how Uber and Lyft measured up this earnings period and why Uber may still have an edge over the competition.
Parallel Systems has been selected to receive $4.5 million from the Department of Energy for an advanced testing program of its autonomous, battery-electric rail vehicles. The startup, which has raised more than $53 million to date, was founded by former SpaceX engineers to reimagine the rail system by creating a more efficient, decarbonized freight network. Matt Soule, Co-founder & CEO of Parallel Systems, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss what the company hopes to achieve.
